Abstract
Zinc (Zn) is an essential trace element that plays important roles in the immune system. There is little known about the role of trace elements in allergic diseases, and previous reports have shown conflicting results. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum Zn levels and total or allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels. The initial candidates for this study were those who participated in the 5th Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010 (n = 8,958), and 1,867 adults who had serum total and allergen specific-IgE levels measured were included. Upon adjusting for covariates, mean total IgE, Dermatophagoides farinae and dog-specific IgE levels increased significantly as the Zn levels decrease from the highest to the lowest quartile (p = 0.009, 0.004, and < 0.001, respectively). The multiple logistic regression analyses showed significant negative linear correlations between serum Zn levels and total, D. farinae-, cockroach-, and dog-specific IgE levels (p-value for linear trend = 0.004, 0.006, 0.027, and < 0.001, respectively). This study demonstrated that total/allergen specific IgE and Zn levels are significantly inversely related.
Highlights
There is little known about the role of trace elements in allergic diseases and previous reports have shown conflicting results
Subjects with hypozincemia were most sensitized to D. farina (37.9%), followed by cockroaches (19.0%) and dogs (6.7%)
Our results demonstrated that decreased serum Zn levels are associated with increased total immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels and allergic sensitization, including sensitization to D. farinae, cockroach and dog
Summary
There is little known about the role of trace elements in allergic diseases and previous reports have shown conflicting results. There have been some reports of association between decreased Zn levels and asthma and atopic dermatitis[8,9,10], whereas other studies have not shown a significant association[11,12]. There have been a few reports on the effects of Zn supplementation in asthma and atopic dermatitis[7,13,14]. There has been no study of the association of IgE levels with Zn levels. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum Zn levels and total or allergen-specific IgE levels using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) databases
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